DIGITAL MARKETING FOR A SMALL BUSINESS CREATING $60K+ IN JOB LEADS
Very! Very happy with my new website and look forward to working with Paul further to develop my marketing strategies."
In August 2020 I was contracted to provide marketing consulting to a renovation company in Sydney called Passion Built. The business owner had created a website using Go Daddy’s site building software but he wasn’t getting leads & was to relying on referrals to get new renovation jobs. It meant the business wasn’t growing even though the renovation sector in New South Wales was growing year on year with the HIA reporting spending growth of nearly 25% in 2020.
This is why it is so important for any business owner to hire a marketing consultant who can review their online marketing activities – it is the only way most businesses will get found. Hiring an independent digital marketing consultant is better than using an seo agency for any bathroom renovation company.
For this project Passion Built wanted help with their marketing and their seo, so I was engaged as a freelance consultant to build a new website, provide SEO development & assist with Google Ads campaign management. The digital marketing execution has been completed in phases over the last twelve months which included the addition of renovation job stories to showcase some of the completed projects. The combination of new website, revised Google My Business profile, a mobile responsive website, new website hosting and improved execution has helped to deliver more than $60,000 in renovation job bookings.
GODADDY SITE BUILDER MIGRATION
NEW WORDPRESS WEBSITE DESIGN
WEBSITE SEO DEVELOPMENT
BRAND USP
DEVELOPMENT
GOOGLE MY BUSINESS OPTIMISATION
GOOGLE AD
CAMPAIGN
WHAT WAS THE MARKETING BRIEF?
Determine how to create more renovation quote leads.Like many renovation business owners in Australia, Passion Built didn’t have the expertise to put time and energy into their digital marketing efforts, that is quite understandable. Apart from referrals, the owner was using sites like Service Seeking, Hi Pages and job board listing sites to generate renovation quote leads but each of these platforms can be quite expensive at $10 or more per lead. More importantly, the quality of the leads can vary greatly with many people just looking for simple makeovers. So it was important for the business owner to get a marketing consultant who can help put the right lead generation and customer conversion strategies in place.
Provide marketing coaching to ongoing development.
Creating a new website is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to generating more leads and enquiries. I provided marketing coaching to the business owner to help them understand what would be needed after the site went live. This included advice on generating written reviews, collecting before/during/after photos of fished projects, how to use professional photography and more.
What did this business need to get more leads?
THEY HAD TWO WEBSITES THAT WEREN'T WORKING
The first website was for their business name that was focussed on the carpenter and house extensions services they had been offering already. They tried to create another website called 1bathrooms.com.au hoping it could be used to pick up business for renovating bathrooms. The technique of using #1, AAA, A+ etc as a way to rank online simply doesn't work. So basically, this all had to be scraped and a new approach used.
IMPROVE THEIR KEYWORD SEARCH RANKING
I did an analysis of their keyword search ranking performance using Google Search Console and the only thing that the business was getting found for was its name. So if people didn't know who they were then nobody could find them online or discover what they did. So improving their Google organic search results had to be one of the priorities.
THERE WASN'T A CLEAR POINT OF DIFFERENCE OR UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION
Everything that was presented on their website or social media was very generic and read the same as hundreds of other renovation companies. Building and renovating is one of the most competitive industries in Australia with hundreds of companies spending thousands on their marketing with high quality photography, hundreds of reviews & lots of examples of their work displayed. So for any relatively new renovation company it is important to get those fundamentals in place immediately.
THERE WEREN'T MANY CLIENT REVIEWS
Even though Passion Built had been doing renovations for many years they didn't have a process for collecting Client reviews or testimonials. Using a Google My Business profile can help make this easier & it helps with local SEO because reviews are used as a ranking factor.
THEIR RENOVATION WORK WASN'T BEING PRESENTED WELL
Even if nothing else is done, one of the most important things a renovation company should do is to make sure people can easily see before and after photos of their completed projects. Too many small business owners will use photos from online libraries or use photos from brands that make the products they use. These days consumers will see through that and realise it isn't their actual work.
WHAT WAS the marketing SCOPE OF WORK?
It was a simple decision for the business owner to make which was to turn off the two existing websites and build a new website to give them a fresh start. The website would be built using WordPress and the site structure would be suitable for desktop, laptop or mobile users and give the renovation business the ability to add content or make changes as needed.
- Develop a new website design, style and content for the renovation business.
- Provide business copywriting for the website to describe the brand and services.
- Competitor research to identify keywords and topics suitable for search keyword ranking.
- Create a unique selling proposition and brand positioning statement.
- Optimise the Google My Business profile.
- Edit and style all provided images of renovation projects completed.
- Rename all images to be suitable for online search.
- Set up Google Analytics & Google Search Console reporting for the new website.
- Design and build the new website using Elementor Page Builder
WHAT DIGITAL MARKETING RESULTS WERE ACHIEVED?
The new website for the renovation business delivered an immediate improvement. For the first time ever the brand was able to show off their amazing work, all their qualifications, their reviews & in depth information about all the services they offered. The website was fast, responsive and suitable for use on mobile phones which is very important for Google page ranking these days.
Within weeks Passion Built were able to start capturing and converting renovation job requests received via email or phone. All the performance data was being captured to prove and track the results as well.
RECORD ONLINE KEYWORD SEARCH VOLUMES
The new website design included a mix of page content and technical SEO set up that was optimised for relevant keywords directly related to each service area for the business. The website started ranking for new keyword phrases within a few weeks, it went from being recognised for just 6 to well over 300 different terms.
In the first few months the search results remained fairly steady because the site didn't have a lot of content. While improvements were made in comparison to the old site, it didn't have enough to compete online with millions of other websites for similar topics. In May 2021 another update was made to the site with a new area set up to show off some of the completed renovation projects that helped accelerate the results.
WEBSITE VISITOR TRAFFIC GROWTH
By improving the range of keywords the site ranked for it broadened the ways the renovation business could be found online for. The difference here is that rather than just getting found for the brand name, they were being seen for phrases like 'bathroom renovation', 'renovation company' meaning they could be discovered by people who didn't know their name.
Even though there wasn't a lot of content added to the site until May 2021 the organic search traffic trend from December onwards had begun showing positive growth. Just shy of 200 people had found the renovation business looking at nearly 600 pages of information on the site.
GOOGLE ADS CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT
To complement the work that was done on the new site there were selected Google Ad Campaigns that were run for targetted locations and services. Each time there were more than 15 other companies advertising but I managed to achieve a high share of advertising impressions with top of page results & click percentage results above 5%.
NEARLY 10% of VISITORS TAKING ACTIONS
The combination of organic search website visitors and advertising helped to create a regular flow of leads to the website. This was being tracked across the contact or quote pages, call buttons and other areas to measure the behaviour of visitors. Nearly 10% of visitors were taking an action which included sending a quote or contact request or calling.
PRESENTATION OF THE RENOVATION WORK COMPLETED
This area was developed mid 2021 to help show off completed projects so that the renovation business could let people see some of the work that goes on behind the scenes. Showcasing examples of renovation work has the benefit of helping to convince people to choose Passion Built as their contractor and improving the SEO results for the site. By adding content talking about products, techniques and the steps being taken when renovating provides depth to the site. It is also a big point of difference as many renovation companies don't showcase their work with much depth.
This SEO strategy gives the business the opportunity to get found for different types of renovation projects, products or brands as well as solving common renovating situations people want help with.
BETTER BRAND PRESENTATION ON GOOGLE SEARCH RESULT PAGES
The website structure helped create site link extensions for search results which improves click rates to the site. The Google My Business profile was also optimised so that all the services, reviews & examples of completed renovation projects could be quickly and easily seen. This is a critical competitive advantage compared to businesses that don't do this & can help convince people to choose Passion Built.
HIGH GOOGLE PAGESPEED INSIGHTS SCORE
Google now uses even more speed & website usability factors in their search engine ranking algorithms than ever before. Just because a website works on a phone or a computer doesn't mean it is performing well. The new website scored close to 100 on the desktop test and over 70 for the mobile phone test. This would help ensure the site was seen favourably by Google's search engines and would give the business another competitive advantage online.
LEAD GENERATING WEBSITE FUNCTIONALITY
The layout of the website on both desktop computer or mobile phone was created in a way that gave precedence to really clear call to actions. It means on any page, on any device the SMS/Call/eMail/Get Quote buttons are prominent. It reduces the need for people to type in numbers or hunt around for contact details, instead they take the action needed.
A SIMPLE WAY TO PRESENT THE BUSINESS TO POTENTIAL CLIENTS
All the page layouts, wording and images on the website were set up in a way that makes it easy to present to clients on site. It means it can be shown during quotations or used as a reference to convert requests into customers.
HOW DOES THE RENOVATION BUSINESS GET MORE WEBSITE VISITORS?
All the fundamentals are in place now for Passion Built to continue building on. The updated online profiles give them the ability to show off their work and expertise via Google My Business or the website which will build long term brand value. Doing so will help grow their exposure but also help convert a higher % viewers to people making enquiries.
If they decide not to add any extra content to their website then that is ok as well. It just means they will need to rely on other ways to find new business from existing customers, referrals or doing other forms of advertising. The challenge with that is the amount of time or money it can take compared to a website working 24/7.
